


Family Rituals

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Family, Fluff, Foursome - F/F/F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-05
Updated: 2014-04-05
Packaged: 2018-01-18 07:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1419609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little moment in the Shepard-Lawson-T'Soni-Alenko household after the war in the house with the kids and the family varren.  Will be part of a series in the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Rituals

Kaidan is the coffee fan out of the four of them. Oh they'll all drink it when they need something to either stay awake to finish reports or analyse data or to wake them up in the morning to face the day but he's the one who has favourite blends, who likes to make it the old-fashioned way, takes his time to savour it and who makes horrified noises at the amount of milk or sugar or cream Seithr, Miranda and Liara add. Kaidan who likes to support little coffee shops no matter where they are. Sometimes he reminds Seithr of the couple that owned the farm next to her parents on Mindoir who would roast their own coffee and who always made up their own bags as part of their gift baskets. She hadn't developed a taste for it by the time the batarians attacked but the smell had woken her each morning bright and early; they still grow it on Mindoir but like so many things, it's not the same. Still, years later when their kids procure a bag for father's day, she drinks it and manages not to cry until later.  
  
Seithr and Miranda are jokingly known as the fussy tea drinkers who have sugar in this tea, nothing in that, a touch of honey or twist of lemon, a splash of milk. Liara is content to have whatever they have but she gets distracted working so she never makes the tea – she steeps it too long or forgets and abandons it until someone asks her about it later. Miranda likes minty teas after a meal, peppery fresh, citrusy numbers to get her up in the morning, the ones with Echinacea or ginger when she's got a sniffle or a cough. She'll pad around the kitchen and check the messages, let the varren out, make sure the kids are behaving if they're not in school whereas Seithr usually takes it as a chance to just sit and Kaidan skims the news and Liara ends up making notes with Glyph, continuing whatever conversation she was having before she left her room. Seithr likes fruity teas, hot or iced, her drink of choice whenever she could get away with it in her rations and it was one of the stupid benefits of being a Spectre and picking that out herself. It's what she always has now in her flask, usually something with red berries, a burst of raspberry and pomegranate on her tongue, almost to the point of being too sweet when she's in the field. It's something else she remembers from before the raiders hit Mindoir, taking out a glass to her dad when he was out in the field, giggling when he used to let her have a sip and the way they'd throw ice cubes at each other or when her mother would curl up at the end of the day with a steaming mug in one hand and it'd be the mad scramble to see which child could squirm their way into her side first, snug and cosy.  
  
There's never that problem here – always plenty of arms to cuddle under or laps to plop into or a space to wriggle between, their girls and their boy and the pet varren at their feet, not the kind of domestic any of them thought they'd have but you do what they've done individually and collectively and you roll with the punches and don't question it or look that particular gift horse in the mouth. In time the kids at least learn that Kaidan won't drink 'twig juice' and that no, you don't put milk in a lot of teas and that you just bring the sugar with you when they make a terrible group effort to bring tea and coffee to their parents in the mornings as bribery for something they want or when they sense they're about to get into trouble for something. They all sneak coffee and shriek in exaggerated horror and open up teabags to marvel at just how weird they are and the kitchen looks like the aftermath of a krogan charge when they're done.  
  
Liara is always the one in charge of making sure they have everything they actually want and need. Sure, she runs it through Glyph who sets up reminders but given that they're all caught up in family life with Miranda liaising with Oriana, Liara still running what she needs to run, Seithr doing speaking engagements and promotional things, Kaidan involved in teaching young biotics, it's the only way they actually make sure they've got food and drink in the house. Vital with the sheer number of biotics and burgeoning biotics and a patrolling whining varren contained in one household. She always orders something that's not quite a tea from Thessia for herself, an asari drink that doesn't have a satisfactory translation that anyone can come up with – it reminds Seithr of a thin soup, salty and sweet and usually a strange shade of green or blue and she guesses it's some sort of algal concoction. Miranda and Kaidan both enjoy it but it makes her gag and Liara is always teasing her about it, trying to convince her to try some and their circle of friends all ended up with a video that Kaidan and Miranda swear they weren't complicit in where Liara grabbed Seithr and kissed her right after she'd been drinking it, Seithr shrieking and leaping away. Not that Liara or Seithr will ever believe that Miranda and Kaidan are at all innocent given how they'd swear blind they hadn't snuck off to have coffee or anything caffeinated with they had all promised to give it up in solidarity during a pregnancy.  
  
No one has that many hushed conversations involving mints on coming home from a suspiciously long walk with the family varren.  
  
"And everyone's out for the night," Kaidan announces quietly as the bedroom door hisses shut behind him, rubbing the back of his neck on his way to the bed.  
  
"How many times did you have to read the lost little varren this time?" Seithr asks with a smile, taking a sip of chamomile tea.  
  
"Just once. But it was the whole version, I tried to skip a few lines-"  
  
"And they recited the whole part you missed out," Liara interrupts, finally putting down the PADD she's been reading from since she came to bed.  
  
"And then they insisted you read it too," Miranda finishes, emerging from the en suite, pressing a kiss to Kaidan's cheek as she passes him on her way to the bed as he's undressing.  
  
"I'm blaming Liara for that trait," he mutters, the words muffled as he pulls his t-shirt over his head.  
  
"I'm sure it's just your masterful storytelling."  
  
"Can't say I blame them," Seithr adds, finishing her tea and setting the cup on the nightstand as she moves to let Miranda crawl in beside her, "voice like yours."  
  
"Flatterer but it's your turn tomorrow night."  
  
"I know, I know. Think I can get them to listen to something else?"  
  
Liara and Miranda both snort as Kaidan hits the lights and joins them in the bed, comfortably big enough for four adults. And three children. And a varren. And whatever stuffed volus or varren or rachni or whatever else nightmare toy Joker has so lovingly sent as a gift guaranteed to either terrify someone when they wake up or to end up stabbing them in the back or leg. Just about. Right now though it's just the four of them, the three people Seithr loves most in the world, who've kept her sane and been there for her when she's needed them, people she respects and would do anything for, her head on Kaidan's shoulder, Miranda curled against her side with Liara curled next to her. God there's nowhere she'd rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: Do each of them know how the other takes their tea/coffee/other?


End file.
